The law (SB 1666), approved this spring by lawmakers, overhauled Florida's troubled child-welfare system and went into effect July 1. It requires the state Child Abuse Death Review Committee to "prepare an annual statistical report on the incidence and causes of death resulting from reported child abuse in the state during the prior calendar year."

However, the number of deaths "from reported child abuse" is just a fraction of the total number of child deaths, and critics say that means crimes are slipping through the cracks.

"Even a car accident could be abuse and neglect, depending on the state of the driver," Sobel, D-Hollywood, said Thursday.

During 2012, a total of 2,111 children under the age of 18 died in Florida, according to the Child Abuse Death Review Committee's 2013 annual report. Of those, 432 were reported to the state abuse hot line at the Department of Children and Families. Of those, the department verified 122 deaths as being related to child abuse or neglect.

Depending on DCF's definitions for abuse and neglect, the hot line counselors screen cases in or out.

"You see variations year to year in how many abuse deaths are reported, depending on the criteria used by the hot line," said Pam Graham, associate professor of social work at Florida State University.

Sobel said the department is screening out too many cases that, with additional scrutiny, could be determined to be child-abuse deaths.

"There's been too much of a cover-up in this state," she said. "The Department of Children and Families should be required to report what they find."

Politicians aren't the only people who wield clout in Orlando. In no particular order, here is an admittedly limited sampling of unelected power brokers in the region. They are people who make things in happen in business, the arts and in the community, and sometimes behind the scenes in...